Tuomas Iisalo didn’t have the easiest start to an NBA coaching career.
Iisalo took over as an interim coach for the Memphis Grizzlies after Taylor Jenkin was released last Friday. Iisalo was selected to lead the team in the last weeks of the season, but his first three opponents – the Los Angeles Lakers, Boston Celtics and Golden State Warriors – were a big challenge, even if every game was in Memphis.
Although Iisalo went 0: 3, it recognized some encouraging signs of a team that tries to climb a defeat against four games and seven defeats in the last eight from a spiral of the season.
On Thursday evening, Memphis (44-32) has another difficult task when she visits Miami heat (35-41). The heat extended her season-best winning streak to six games with the 124-103 victory in Boston on Wednesday.
With its defeat from 134-125 against the Warriors on Tuesday, the grizzlies overcame a 17-point deficit in the first half and led four of four at the end of the fourth quarter before the Warriors closed a 18: 5 run.
“The news of me is very clear,” said Iisalo. “We can achieve a lot with this kind of effort, intensity and togetherness.
“It is only the timeline that is currently tight for us. There are many things that we can now work on because the base appears very stable when you look at how we play when we perform.”
Four of the last six games of the grizzlies will be on the road, starting with Miami.
“Every game that has to do,” said Memphis striker Jaren Jackson jr .. “It has to be at an all -time high now. We know that it doesn’t have time not to be as urgent as possible. It’s on an all -time high.”
The grizzlies are fighting for fifth place in the Western Conference with the Warriors, Minnesota Timberwolves and Los Angeles Clippers. Teams that take the seventh up to 10th place in the conference have to take part in a game tournament to reach the playoffs.
Memphis must climb defensively. The Warriors took 22 3 points on Tuesday and scored 74 points in the first half. On Saturday against the Lakers, the grizzlies allowed 72 points in the first half and 19 3-pointer with a loss of 134-127.
“There are no magic tricks,” said Iisalo. “It only has the better defensive schedule, something with more clarity. I think the clarity has to come before the intensity. You need to know what you will do so that you can do it (intensely). It starts with me. We have to be ready when the game begins.”
Miami has now found his step late in the season.
After 10 games in a row from March 5th to 21st, the heat has put together its six-game winning shop and is in a solid position to make the play-in tour name on seventh place in the Eastern Conference.
On Wednesday evening in Boston, the Heat shot 51.8 percent off the field and led up to 22 points to reach Celtics’s nine-game winning shop. Tyler Herro led Miami with 25 points and nine templates and Bam Adebayo scored 21 points.
Miami’s next challenge is to complete a back-to-back set on Thursday to keep his series alive.
“It doesn’t matter,” said Heat coach Erik Spoelstra. “We all have in a row. We are not afraid of it.”
-Media on the Level field
